South Florida Crime

MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Two brothers, behind bars for allegedly killing a man while fighting over birds, asked to be released at a hearing Tuesday.

Lazaro and Freddy Romero are accused of stabbing and killing Yoan Vazquez, 32, while fighting over the ownership of 10 prized racing pigeons in 2013, according to our news partners the Miami Herald. Vazquez said he bought them from Lazaro but Lazaro claimed the birds were on loan.

The two faced a judge Tuesday, asking to be released from jail on bond. The judge declared he would rule on the matter on Tuesday, April 13th. The men remain in custody.

In the fight, captured on the victim’s security camera, Freddy allegedly stabbed Vazquez to death. Vazquez’s 6-year old daughter witnessed the incident.

The brothers, who were fellow pigeon racers, are in a Miami-Dade jail awaiting trial on second degree murder charges.

The Romeros are claiming self-defense saying that Vazquez stabbed himself after pulling a knife on Freddy and the two struggled.

The surveillance video was shown at Tuesday’s hearing.

The state said the video shows the Vazquez only in a defensive, hands raised posture adding it would have been impossible for Vazquez to have stabbed himself, as Romero claims, since he was stabbed eight times.

Vazquez’s daughter told police it was Freddy Romero, not her father, who pulled the knife

Vazquez’s death shook the tight knit pigeon racing community.

Vazquez’s friend and a member of the Kendall Racing Pigeons Club, Carlos Costa, told the paper, “There are arguments about whose birds are better, for sure, but this type of violence never happens.”

With thousands of fanciers and the nation’s largest organized group, Gulf Coast Club in Tampa, Florida is a relative hot bed for pigeon racing, according to the paper, with prized breeding birds raking in hundred of dollars or more.